How to Write a Book About Someone You Love in Half an Hour

Many people want to write a book about their mom, their grandfather, or their partner, and get stuck on the first sentence. The secret is that you do not have to write a book. You just have to choose well. Here is the method we use at Magical Book, and you can use it without a computer too.

Step 1: Pick one person and one occasion (2 minutes)

A book about "Mom" is too broad. A book about "Mom, for her 60th birthday, from her kids' point of view" already knows what it is. The occasion sets the tone: a birthday is moving, a retirement is funny, an anniversary is romantic.

Step 2: Three memories, not thirty (10 minutes)

Take a sheet of paper and write down three moments only you remember. Not "she always supported me" but "the night she drove two hours to bring me the notebook I forgot." The specific memory moves people. The general one does not. If it is hard to choose, ask another family member: everyone has a different moment.

Step 3: What they love and what they say (5 minutes)

Two places they love most, two hobbies, and one sentence they always say. These are the details that turn a generic book into their book. Readers will laugh by page two because they recognize the person.

Step 4: The order (5 minutes)

Beginning: who they are in the eyes of the world. Middle: the three memories, from light to heavy. End: who they are in our eyes. That is the whole structure. Ten pages: an opening page, three pages for each memory, and a closing page.

Step 5: The last page (3 minutes)

One sentence, direct, in the first person: "Thank you for teaching us to laugh at everything." That is the sentence they will remember. Do not look for big words, look for your own words.

Step 6: One photo (2 minutes)

If the book will be illustrated, pick one clear photo, facing the camera, in good light, with no sunglasses or hat and nobody else in the frame. All the illustrations are built from that photo.

And how does this become a printed book?

At Magical Book, these steps are exactly the seven questions of the questionnaire. You answer in your own words, the story is written within a minute, every page is illustrated with the person's face, and you can edit any sentence before printing. The cover and two illustrated pages are free, and you can see current prices for the full hardcover on the create page. Start here: write a book.